Funding the School Year, All Year Long

The Department of Education first proposed year-round Pell grants in 2008, in its project of “strengthening our Nation by providing advanced training for today’s global economy.” But by 2011, after a trial run of only two full years, they were on the way out. In 2016, the challenges of the global economy haven’t changed, and year-round Pell Grants are back on the agenda.

In the attached letters sent to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees last week, our partner members of the Higher Education Act Policy Coalition joined New America in advocating for the reinstatement of year-round Pell Grants. New America’s dedication to the renewal of American prosperity in the Digital Age demands both a clear appraisal of the needs of modern Americans and the audacity to develop and advance the government policies that will serve them most completely. In November 2015, the HEA Policy Coalition published its “Seven Principles” for Renewing the Promise of the Higher Education Act, consolidating its recommendations for a postsecondary education system that serves a larger and more diverse population of students. These recommendations include an emphasis on flexibility in Federal Aid programs, a goal that year-round Pell could help achieve.

The return of “year-round” Pell Grants – which extend a student’s grant eligibility beyond a conventional academic year – is a step towards a more flexible financial aid structure that will get Americans through school sooner and into jobs quicker, something all partisan camps can appreciate. Students need such federal support to fund the programs that will be most useful to them, which are not necessarily conventional two- or four-year degrees. They should be able to rest easy knowing that their programs and credentials are subject to rigorous and transparent accreditation, and that their institutions are rewarded with federal support only for providing the outcomes that matter most:  graduation, higher earnings, and opportunities for further advancement in work and education. 

Over the next year, Pell Grants will support nearly 8 million students in their pursuit of higher education, forming the bedrock of federal support for a dynamic segment of the country’s high-need students. But as they stand, Pell Grants cannot live up to their full potential, falling crucially short for a new archetype of American student that is rarely fresh-out-of-high-school and very often studying year-round on a part-time basis. Almost two million such students benefited from year-round Pell eligibility before its cancellation. If Congress reintroduces year-round Pell Grants, working students hoping to study part-time will be able to draw on Pell funding to pursue postsecondary education at the timing and pace that serves them best, and the measure would support full-time students, too, if they choose to accelerate their programs with summer study.   

As New America alums Jason Delisle and Ben Miller explained last year in “Myths and Misunderstandings: The Undeserved Legacy of Year-Round Pell Grants”, the first incarnation of year-round Pell was doomed by bad economic timing, imperfect planning, and budgetary expediency. With a well-informed restart, American lawmakers can help modern students break from outdated presumptions about the structure of their higher education. The dividends of this innovation will be paid not just in the form of greater economic competitiveness, but also with a smarter, wealthier, and more engaged citizenry to power American democracy.